Kingdom of Bohemia

Who rules

Name

Ottokar I (Přemysl Otakar I)

Title

King of Bohemia (rex Boemorum) by King Philip's grant of 1198; Innocent III still styles him duke

Since

Duke of Bohemia again since the settlement with his brother on 6 December 1197 (he had been duke in 1192-1193 and was deposed by Henry VI); king since 1198

Born

About 1155-1167 (FMG: before 1170); about 35 to 45 years old

Family

Přemyslid. Son of King Vladislaus II (king from 1158, died 1174) and his second wife Judith of Thuringia, after whom the stone bridge at Prague is named and who founded the nunnery at Teplice (whether she is still alive in 1200 is not pinned). Full brother of Vladislaus Henry, margrave of Moravia; half-brother of Archbishop Adalbert III of Salzburg (son of Vladislaus II by Gertrude of Austria). Uncle of Ludmila, widow of Count Albert III of Bogen (died 1197), who rules at Bogen for her young sons. First wife Adelaide (Adléta) of Meissen, sister of the late Margrave Albert and of Margrave Dietrich of Meissen, married 1178 (en and de wikipedia; FMG says 1187), repudiated 1198-1199; second wife Constance of Hungary, daughter of King Béla III and sister of King Emeric, married 1199.

Confidence

high

Coronation: FMG gives 15 August 1198 at Mainz; de.wikipedia says the agreement was reached at Mainz on 8 September 1198 (the day Philip was crowned there by Archbishop Aymon of Tarentaise) and Ottokar was crowned a few days later at Boppard; en.wikipedia says only that he was crowned at Mainz; the coronation table of cs.wikipedia (Korunovace českých panovníků) gives 8 September 1198 at Boppard. The settlement of 6 December 1197 is from the annals of Jarloch (cs.wikipedia, Vladislav Jindřich). The annulment of the first marriage by Bishop Daniel II of Prague on grounds of kinship and the marriage to Constance in 1199 are from cs.wikipedia (Konstancie Uherská) and en.wikipedia (Adelaide of Meissen); the Prague canons' continuation of Cosmas gives 1199 for the marriage (FMG); de.wikipedia gives 1198.

Overlord

The German king. Ottokar holds Bohemia of King Philip of Swabia, who gave him the royal title in 1198 in return for his vote and his troops; Otto IV does not recognise him and the pope does not recognise the crown (Innocent III recognises it only in 1204).

What the realm holds

• Bohemia proper, ruled through the royal provincial castles and their districts: Prague with Vyšehrad, Žatec, Litoměřice, Bílina, Děčín, Mělník, Boleslav, Kouřim, Čáslav, Chrudim, Hradec, Vratislav (by Vysoké Mýto), Plzeň, Domažlice, Tachov, Sedlec (by Loket), Prácheň, Bechyně, Doudleby and Netolice (see The king's provinces)
• Kladsko (Glatz): the castle and its province on the Silesian side of the mountains (see Kladsko (Glatz))
• Upper Lusatia: the Bautzen land (Milsko) and the Görlitz land (Zagost) between the Pulsnitz and the Queis, an imperial fief held by the Bohemian crown since 1158 (see Upper Lusatia (Bautzen))
• The royal forests: the frontier woods (the hvozd) round the whole kingdom, with the great hunting forest of Křivoklát west of Prague
• The Prague market and the Týn court (Ungelt) where foreign merchants paid the duke's toll; the tolls on the roads to Regensburg, Passau, Nuremberg, Meissen, Silesia and Moravia, and on the Elbe at Ústí and Litoměřice
• The coinage: Prague denars (pfennigs) struck in the ruler's name
• Overlordship of Moravia, held as a Bohemian fief by Margrave Vladislaus Henry since 6 December 1197 (mor writes the moravia record)
• The advocacy and patronage of the great churches founded by the dukes: Vyšehrad chapter, St George's convent, Břevnov, Kladruby, Sázava, Strahov, Litoměřice and Stará Boleslav chapters (Church map records)
• Not in the king's hand: Sušice and the Künisches Gebirge in the Bohemian Forest, the dowry of his niece Ludmila, held by the Bavarian counts of Bogen (see Bogen dowry (Sušice)); the Hospitallers' market of Kadaň; the Church's immunities

How it was acquired

The Přemyslids have ruled Bohemia since the ninth century. Vladislaus II was made king for his own person by Frederick Barbarossa in 1158 and received the Bautzen land the same year. Ottokar was invested as duke by Henry VI in 1192, deposed in 1193 in favour of his cousin Henry Břetislav (bishop of Prague and duke 1193-1197), spent 1193-1197 in exile in Germany, and returned in 1197 by force and agreement with his brother.

Philip's grant of 1198 made the royal title hereditary, the first such crown in Bohemian history (de.wikipedia).

Allies and rivals

Allies: King Philip and the Staufen princes (Ottokar was among the princes behind Philip at his election in March 1198 and at the Speyer declaration of 28 May 1199, which told the pope to keep out of the election); his brother Vladislaus Henry in Moravia; his brother Adalbert III, archbishop of Salzburg; and since 1199 King Emeric of Hungary, his new brother-in-law. Rivals: the Wettins of Meissen, whose sister he has put away (Margrave Dietrich is her brother); Otto IV and the Welf party; the pope, who has Adelaide's appeal and will not call Ottokar king. Inside Bohemia the dangers are the collateral Přemyslid line of the Děpoltici in eastern Bohemia (Philip names Děpolt III duke in 1203), and any noble faction that wants another Přemyslid.

The realm that morning

Ottokar holds Bohemia, Kladsko and Upper Lusatia without challenge on the morning of 1 January 1200, and his brother holds Moravia of him in peace. The frontiers run through forest: towards Austria the line was fixed by Barbarossa at Eger in 1179, after Duke Soběslav II had seized the Weitra land in 1176 (aus), and the Kuenringer are clearing the Austrian side; towards Bavaria the Bohemian Forest is shared with the counts of Bogen, Ottokar's niece's house, who also hold Sušice and the Künisches Gebirge on the Bohemian slope as her dowry; towards Meissen the Erzgebirge is being cleared from both sides (the Hrabišici at Osek, the margrave's Freiberg silver country); towards Silesia the Peace of Glatz (1137) still holds. No war is being fought on any Bohemian frontier that winter as far as the sources show: no raids are recorded on the Bavarian, Austrian, Meissen or Silesian sides in 1199, so no raiding belt is drawn.

The kingdom backs Philip. The quarrels that winter are legal and dynastic: Adelaide's appeal at Rome against the annulment, Meissen's grievance, and the pope's refusal of the royal title.

Wealth

Bohemia's wealth in 1200 is trade, tribute and land rather than mines: the great Prague market, where German, Romance and Jewish merchants trade on the routes between the Danube, the Rhine, Poland and Kyiv; the tolls on the roads through the frontier forests and on the Elbe; the tribute of peace (tributum pacis) and the dues and labour that the castle districts owe; the royal forests. The great silver strikes are later (Jihlava on the Moravian border from the 1230s, Kutná Hora at the end of the century); the Freiberg silver over the Erzgebirge belongs to Meissen. The denar of Prague has grown small and light in the twelfth century; the change to the thin one-sided pfennigs (bracteates) comes later in Ottokar's reign (not pinned).

Military

The host is the king's following, the castle garrisons of the provinces and the levy of the nobles and their men; the frontier forests are guarded at the passes (the Domažlice road to Regensburg, the road to Passau through Netolice and Prachatice, the Chlumec pass to Meissen, the Náchod and Kladsko roads to Silesia). Bohemian troops served Philip on his Rhineland campaign of 1198 (the Rhenish annals complain of their plundering; not pinned in detail here). No numbers are recorded.

Threats

• The pope: Adelaide's appeal against the annulment, and Innocent III's refusal of the royal title; Innocent leans towards Otto IV and may use both as levers
• Meissen: Margrave Dietrich, Adelaide's brother, a Staufen ally like Ottokar but with a family grievance against him
• A change of fortune in the throne war: if Otto wins, a crown given by Philip is worth little; if Philip turns on him, a rival Přemyslid can be raised (as Philip does with Děpolt III in 1203)
• The Děpoltici and other Přemyslid kin in eastern Bohemia
• The death of his brother the archbishop of Salzburg (8 April 1200), which removes a Přemyslid from the circle of the great Staufen princes

Court and officers

Chief chamberlain (komorník): Slavek I of the Hrabišici held the office under Ottokar until 1202 at the latest (cs.wikipedia, Hrabišici); his kinsman Hrabiše III had held it in 1192-1197. Bishop of Prague: Daniel II (Milík), since 1197, Ottokar's man (campaign notes); en.wikipedia (via mor) says Vladislaus Henry, as duke in 1197, put his own confessor Daniel into the see; Daniel pronounced the annulment. The other court offices (steward, cup-bearer, marshal, judge, sub-chamberlain, the provost of Vyšehrad as head of the writing office) are not pinned by name for 1199-1200.

Provincial castellans are not pinned for 1200 in the sources reached here: Kladsko had Hroznata (1169), Ryvín (1175) and Vítek of Prčice (1177) as castellans, and a Smil in the early thirteenth century; Bílina had a castellan Jaroš, son-in-law of Slavek of the Hrabišici (date not pinned).

What the year holds

What happened next, if nothing in play changes it. Each event carries what it depends on and what would stop it.

In 1200

1. 1200 (not pinned)Innocent III pursues Adelaide's appeal against the annulment; the case drags on until her death in 1211, and the pope finally accepts the separation (en.wikipedia).Depends on: Adelaide and her brother pressing the case; the pope's interest in a lever on Ottokar. Stopped by: A reconciliation of Ottokar and the Wettins, or Adelaide's withdrawal.
2. 8 April 1200Death of Archbishop Adalbert III of Salzburg, Ottokar's half-brother (campaign notes, Part 10). Eberhard of Regensberg, bishop of Brixen, follows him later in 1200.Depends on: Natural death on its date. Stopped by: Only a change in his circumstances in play.
3. About 1200 (not pinned)Constance bears a son, Vratislav, who dies young (cs.wikipedia gives 1200-1201 with a query; de and en wikipedia say about 1200). Whether he is born before or after 1 January 1200 is not pinned; he is not listed as a living child here.Depends on: The marriage of 1199. Stopped by: Nothing in play, unless the queen's health or circumstances change.
4. 25 or 27 October 1200Death of Archbishop Conrad of Mainz, Prague's metropolitan (campaign notes); the double election at Mainz follows.Depends on: Natural death. Stopped by: Only a change in his circumstances in play.

Later, on the likely course

1. 1201-1204 (not yet)Ottokar goes over to Otto IV and the pope: he is crowned again at Merseburg in 1203 by the legate Guido, Philip declares him deposed and names Děpolt III duke in 1203, and Ottokar returns to Philip in 1204; Innocent III recognises the kingship in 1204.Depends on: Otto IV's rise and the pope's open support for Otto (1201). Stopped by: A Staufen victory or settlement that keeps Ottokar's crown safe with Philip.

Places of note

• Prague Castle: Seat of the king and of the bishop of Prague
• Vyšehrad: The second castle of Prague, with the exempt chapter of SS Peter and Paul
• Znojmo: Seat of Margrave Vladislaus Henry (cs.wikipedia); mor writes Moravia
• Křivoklát: The king's hunting castle and forest west of Prague

Where the sources disagree

• The coronation is dated and placed differently by the sources: FMG, 15 August 1198 at Mainz; de.wikipedia, agreement at Mainz on 8 September 1198 and crowning a few days later at Boppard; cs.wikipedia's coronation table, 8 September 1198 at Boppard (it names the legate Guido of Palestrina as officiant, but he is the man who crowned Ottokar at Merseburg on 24 August 1203 and is unlikely for 1198); en.wikipedia, Mainz with no date. Best reading: the royal dignity was granted at Mainz at Philip's coronation of 8 September 1198 and Ottokar was crowned at Boppard on the Rhine that day or within days; the officiant is not pinned. The campaign notes give no date.
• The marriage to Constance: 1199 in the Prague continuation of Cosmas (FMG), cs and en wikipedia; 1198 in de.wikipedia. This record follows 1199.
• The first marriage: 1178 in en and de wikipedia, 1187 in FMG.
• Archbishop Adalbert III of Salzburg: FMG gives his death as April 1203; the campaign notes (Part 10) and the usual reckoning give 8 April 1200. This record follows the campaign notes.
• The campaign notes mark Olomouc thin. cs.wikipedia (Bavorové ze Strakonic) says a Premonstratensian named Bavor became bishop of Olomouc in 1199 (usually called John Bavor, 1199-1201): for mor and the Church map to check.
• en.wikipedia says Ottokar abandoned Philip for the Welf party in 1200; the dated evidence (the Merseburg coronation of 1203, Philip's deposition of him in 1203) puts the change in 1201-1203. On 1 January 1200 he is Philip's man.

Evidence: The king, his family and his side are well attested in the Prague and German annals and in Innocent III's letters. The government of the provinces, the names of castellans and court officers, and the nobles' holdings for these exact years are thin: the Bohemian charters before 1200 are few, many are forged or survive only in later copies, and most noble lordships appear only in the 1220s-1250s.

On the map: The outer line follows the historic frontier of the Bohemian crown lands, which in 1200 ran through frontier forest that nobody held in detail. The Egerland is excluded (Staufen). The Zittau basin is included in Bohemia proper. The line between Upper Lusatia and the Meissen and Lusatian marches on the north and west is rough.

Primary sources for this realm

Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.

• Annals of Jarloch (Gerlach), abbot of Milevsko, Jarloch of Milevsko (about 1200 to 1220). The last Bohemian narrative before 1200, continuing Vincentius of Prague. Read online
• The Austrian and Salzburg annals (kept in the 12th and 13th centuries, with continuations to the late 13th century). A family of monastic annals from Austria, Styria and Salzburg, printed together. Read online
• Regesta Imperii V: calendar of the acts of Philip, Otto IV and Frederick II, 1198 to 1272 (calendar of documents of 1198 to 1272, published 1881 to 1901). A dated calendar of every known act of King Philip and King Otto IV, with the acts of popes and princes that bear on the Empire. Read online
• The Registers of Pope Innocent III for 1199 to 1201, Innocent III and the papal chancery (22 February 1199 to 21 February 1201). The pope's outgoing letters for the year, in his chancery's own copy, touching nearly every realm in the atlas. Read online
• Charters and letters of the kingdom of Bohemia, volume 2, 1198 to 1230 (documents of 1198 to 1230, edited 1912). The critical edition of every Bohemian and Moravian charter and letter from Ottokar I's accession to 1230.
• Constitutions and public acts of the emperors and kings, volume 2, 1198 to 1272 (documents of 1198 to 1272, edited 1896). The public documents of the throne war in full text: the election notices of 1198, the princes' declaration of Speyer of 28 May 1199 to Innocent III, the pope's replies, Philip's and Otto's letters and promises, and the imperial acts of 1200 and 1201 including Otto's promises at Neuss in June 1201. Read online